56 Friday, January 28, 1977
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Many Problems Seen, A Few Solutions
Prescribed for the World Jewish Press
noted, is highly effective
in investigating corrup-
tion and machinations in
government circles yet
fails to consistently or ef-
fectively deal with the
quality of Israeli life, both
in its contributions to the
arts and sciences and the
social problems which af-
fect the average Israeli.
* * *
The press, this writer
continued, should deal
Conference
with these problems be-
Elects Officers
cause Israel's enemies
Members of the World don't have to read the Is-
Executive Committee of raeli press to know what's
the World Union of going on in_the Jewish
Jewish Journalists in- state.
clude the following from
By avoiding the more
the United States: Joseph unpleasant elements of Is-
Polakoff, Washington; rael's social development
Philip Slomovitz, Detroit; the non-Jewish press
Frank Wundahl, abroad reports about them
Philadelphia, and Robert out of context and fre-
Cohn, St. Louis.
quently catches Jewish
Moshe Ron, Detroit communities by surprise.
Jewish News Tel Aviv
But if the Israeli press
correspondent, was re- dealt
with these problems
elected executive secre- it could
provide an insight
tary. Josef Fraenkel, De- into their
and the
troit Jewish News Lon- methods of origins
trying
don correspondent, also and resolve them. to cope
was elected a member of
In addition, he said, the
the world executive.
'she Mexican delega- Israeli press is becorning,
tion to the world confer- to all intents and •pur-
ence accompanied an in- poses less and less of a
vitation to the World Jewish press in its re-
Union of. Jewish Jour- liance on reports from
nalists to hold its next abroad that appear in the
annual executive com- non-Jewish rather than
mittee meeting in Mexico in what appears in the
with a presentation of Jewish press and Jewish
awards to five participat- news agencies.
ing journa.lists.
. Focusing on the Jewish
The awards, in the form press in the United
of citations and medals, States, this writer told
came from the La Asocia- another session of the
cion Nacional de conference that for the
Periodistasy Los Sectores first time in decades "our
Intelecttiales del Pais press is a powerhouse and
Que Forman Suconsego generally respected for
Te-enico.
its credibility by the
The medals were pre-
sented from Presea
"Francisco Zarco". Al
Merito Periodisto to
Moshe Assaf, head of the
Israel Journalists Assn.;
Moshe Ron, London, and
JERUSALEM (JTA) —
Philip Slomovitz, Detroit. President
Ephraim Kat-
zir told the International
Maccabiah Games Com-
mittee (IMGC) delegates
from 17 countries attend-
ing a week-long confer-
ence in Israel that he
hopes many of the 2,000
Jewish athletes who will
appear in the 10th Mac-
cabiah Games in Israel
July 12-21 "will return to
us as new immigrants in
the not too distant fu-
ture."
Katzir, who hosted the
delegation at a reception
in the Presidential resi-
dence, also told them
"That we are grateful for
your help and involve-
ment in this great set of
international Jewish
games."
Later, at a Knesset
luncheon, Avraham Katz,
chairman of the Knesset
committee on education,
culture and sports, told
them that "the past Mac-
cabiot have been inspir-
ing events and have
served as an encouraging
factor for the promotion
of aliya to our homeland."
Culture and Education
Minister Aharon Yadlin
told the group that "It is
our fondest hope and ex-
pectation that this country
of ours belongs to all Jews
(Continued from Page 2)
press for phrase-
mongering, playing fast
and loose with facts, fail-
ing to verify statements,
scandalizing the news
and succumbing to a
"galut mentality in re-
verse."
The Israeli press, he
non-Jewish press - and deluged with press re-
leases from organiza-
community."
The American Jewish tional spokespeople that
press, he said, including have little if any pews
the JTA which services value apart from -keeping
some 80 w e eklies, is regu- local names in the press.
In addition, this writer
larly monitored by the
White House, the State noted, too many organiza-
Department, foreign em- tional spokespersons are
bassies, influential col- more ecstatic about get-
umnists and • the Soviet ting into print in major
and Arab press represen- non-Jewish dailies than in
tatives in Washington the Jewish press.
and the United Nations.
"The Jewish, press has
They read it to find out to make it clear that it,
what is happening in the and not the daily press, is
Jewish communities and the voice of the Jewish
what is the thinking of community," he said.
the Jewish leaders.
This writer and other
As examples he cited speakers at the confer-
the fact that during the ence, urged the Jewish
Presidential election press around the world
campaign representa- not to shy away from dis-
tives from both the Ford sent and disputation.
and Carter camps called
The Jewish press in
the JTA and many week- America, with its
lies to discuss news de- -talented and dedicated
velopments and that fre- editors, journalists and
quently news dispatches publishers can become
in the JTA and the Jewish catalytic agents in
weeklies concerning both mobilizing the corn-
President Ford . and munities. on issues of vital
Jimmy Carter were car- concern to the Jewish
ried earlier and in greater people and Israel.
depth than in the non-
The conference did
Jewish press.
have one salutory ef-
Another example was
fect: it brought to-
that the House Foreign gether journalists who,
Relations Committee is-' despite their differences
sued an extensive report in outlooks and back-
on anti-Semitism • in grounds, diversity of
Argentina which carried political and social condi-
two lengthy articles on tions under which they
the situation there from work in their respective
Jewish weeklies that had
countries and despite the
been distributed by the rivalries between the
JTA.
three blocs, came away
Despite 'allthis, the with the fuller realization
Jewish press in America that nothing in the world
is frequently bogged today is alien to Jewish
down in its reports on journalism and that all
local community de- social and political de-
velopments impinge on
velopments because
editors and reporters are Jewish life.
Katzir Hopes Maccabiah Athletes
Will Become Future Immigrants
wherever they are and the
Maccabiah Games sym-
bolize our people."
Noting that questions
are constantly raised
about whether Jews are a
race, religion or culture,
Yadlin said: "We are a un-
ique people . . . We are a
universal people in all
cultures throughout the
world."
He added that "Israel is
a wonderful country if
you do not read the news-
papers. We have faults
besides miracles and
achieveMents. We are
trying to cope with our
mistakes."
The problems facing
Jewish youth in many
parts of the world today
was a subject of discus-
sion during a meeting of
the delegation • at the
Maccabiah village.
Dr. Israel Peled, chair-
man of the Maccabi World
Executive, said that
Jewish communities ab-
road, especially in South
America and to some ex-
tent South Africa, find
themselves involved in a
crisis that may not have
any direct connection with
Jewish issues but could,
nevertheless, hurt the
Jewish community.
He urged the training
of cadres of youth leaders
and Jewish leadership
generally.
He reported that be-
cause of its non-partisan
nature, the Maccabi
movement has become a
center of Jewish - ac-
tivities in many countries
where Maccabi clubs
have been transformed
into communal centers
where Jewish youths can
find their identity... in the
Jewish spirit and herit-
age.
Peled reported that ef-
forts are being made, in
cooperation with other
organizations, to bring
teams from Cuba, Iran
and Turkey and from sev-
eral Eastern European
countries to Israel for the
Maccabiah next summer.
The IMGC elected
Robert Rosenberg, of
Manhasset, L.I., past pres-
ident of the United States
Committee Sports for Is-
rael to be chairman of fi-
nance for the 1977 Mac-
cabiah.
Alan Sherman, of
Washington, D.C., was
elected co-chairman of
the Sports Committee.
William Steerman was
sppointed to the Accom-
modations Committee
and Haskell Cohen to the
press, television and
media committee.
BoriS Smolar's
'Between You
• • . and Me'
Editor-in-Chief
Emeritus, JTA
(Copyright 1977, JTA, Inc.)
AMERICAN ORT CONVENTION: I am a great
admirer of ORT— the Organization for Rehabilitation
Through Training — which is now making prepa-
rations to celebrate its 100th anniversary.
The mere fact that a Jewish organization founded
in Czarist Russia some 100 years ago to help hundreds
of thousands of Jewish "luft-menschen" who lived in
misery and under oppression — and raising the- -es-
sary funds for this purpose among the wealth nd
middle-class Russian Jews themselves, with no aid
from Jewish communities abroad — speaks for itself
and for Jewish leadership in Russia at that time. Even
more impressive is the fact that the organization has,,_
since World War I, grown into a world Jewish body by
expanding into what is now known as the World ORT
Union and extending its operations to all countries
where Jews are in need of vocational training.
But my major regard for the ORT emanates
chiefly - from the fact that during all the years of its
existence., ORT was an organization of creative
"takhlit" — of training Jews, young and adult, to be-
come self-supporting through the kind of vocational
knowledge that implants dignity in people by giving
them a feeling of self-assurance that, as highly skilled
workers, they will be able to make a living in any
country by the skill of their hands. This is no small
achievement. Through its vocational schools, ORT has
trained hundreds of thousands of Jews not only in
Russia, but later also in Poland, Romania and other
countries to economic self-reliance.
38,000 ORT SCHOOLS: Today ORT functions in
more than 20 countries with 38,000 vocational schools
serving over 70,000 young and adult students, 47,000 of
them in Israel.
In Israel,, ORT is the backbone of the country's
. training system for cadres of qualified workers in all
fields needed for Israel's economic and technical
growth. With the ORT vocational system, Israel feels
it has a growing reservoir of highly specialized people.
ORT also enjoys recognition in France where it
maintains a large number of vocational training'
schools, some of Which are subsidized by local manic=
palities. It enjoys special recognition on the part of the
Swiss government which helps to finance the Central
ORT Institute for the training of instructors for the
ORT school system in the entire free world. There are
about 3,000 such instructors in the ORT system.
The remarkable thing is that even Moslem coun-
tries — like Iran and Arab governments in North Af-
rica — welcome the ORT programs in their lands. They
seek to influence ORT to accept also Moslem students
for which they are willing to pay tuition in the desire to
provide them with the high-quality vocational train-
ing.
The International Labor Office has termed ORT
has "an example of private technical assistance" de-
cades before the U.S. began to give technical aid to
underdeveloped nations. The U.S. government -is now
maintaining a number of arrangements with ORT
under which ORT provides vocational training in un-
derdeveloped countries assisted by Washington.
U.S. JEWISH AFFINITY: The American ORT
Federation, which -held its three-day annual national
conference in New York last weekend with 600 dele-
gates from all over the country, was formed only about
55 years ago, many years after ORT had already
existed. This is because very little was known by
American Jewry of ORT until after World War I, when
it was transformed into the present World ORT Union,
with its seat no longer in Russia but in Berlin.
I remember the year when the first ORT mission
came from Berlin to the United States to seek Ameri-
can Jewish aid and to form an American group of ORT.
The delegation was composed of Dr. Leon Bra son
and Dr. Aron Syngalowski, later joined 7 r.
Lvovitch — the three top leaders of World OR . _ ey
had no easy task to perform. Influential American
Jewish leaders were mostly ignorant of the ORT activ-
ities in Europe.
Fortunately, the Jewish labor movement in this
country — the Jewish labor unions, the Jewish Daily
Forward, the Workmen's Circle did understand the
importance of ORT, and they developed a strong affin-
ity toward ORT, under the active leadership of B. Vla-
dek, then a central figure in the Jewish labor move-
ment. In no time, ORT began to receive not only moral
support but also financial aid from the Jewish labor
unions in this country, and its reputation grew from
year to year among all elements of American Jewry.
Today, ORT is well known and highly respected in
Jewish communities throughout the United- States
and Canada. It does not conduct its own fund-raising
in the United States; it receives instead more than $3.6
million a year from the Joint Distribution Committee
toward its $45 million annual budget, in addition to
funds which Women's American ORT and other ORT
groups raise separately.